"

His words were babble, but the look in his eyes, the loose slaver of his
lips, both scared and angered her, and as he pushed against her,
clumsily trying to hook his arm about her waist, she struck him sharply
with the full weight of her arm and shoulder, and he tottered and fell
sprawling. With a curse in his teeth he caught at a chair, recovered his
balance, and faced her with a look of fury that would have appalled one
less experienced than she.

"You little fool," he snarled, "don't you do that again!"

"_Stop!_" She did not lift her voice, but the word arrested him. "Do you
want to die?" The word _die_ pierced the mist of his madness. "What do
you think Mart will say to this?"

He shivered and grew pale under the force of his brother's name uttered
in that tone. He began to melt, subsiding into a jelly-mass of fear.

"Don't tell Mart, for Christ's sake! I didn't mean nothing. Don't do it,
I beg--I beg!"

She looked at him and seemed to grow in years as she searched his
wretched body for its soul. "If you don't pull out of this house
to-morrow I'll let him know just the kind of dead-head boarder you are.
You haven't fooled me any--not for a minute. I've put up with you for
his sake, but to-night settles it. You go! I've stood a lot from you,
but your meal-ticket is no good after to-morrow morning--you _sabe_?
It's you to the outside to-morrow. Now get out, or I call Mart."

He turned and shuffled from the room, leaving his battered hat at her
feet.

She waited till she heard him close his door; then, with a look of
disgust on her face, picked up his hat and coat, and hung them on the
rack in the hall. "I'm sorry for Mart," she said to herself. "He _was_
company for him, but I can't stand the loafer a day longer. I hope I
never see him again."

* * * * *

He did not get down to breakfast, and for this she was glad; but he
sought opportunity a little later to plead for clemency. "Give me
another chance. I was drunk. I didn't mean it."

She remained inexorable. "Not for a second," she succinctly replied. "I
don't care how you fix it with Mart. Smooth it up as best you can, but
fly this coop." And her face expressed such contempt that he crept away,
flabby and faltering, to his brother.

"I've been telegraphed for, and must go," he said. "And, by the way, I
need a little ready mon to carry me to the little old town. As soon as I
get to work I'll send you a check."

Mart